Monday, January 28, 2008

I'M ALIVE!!!!!

Hi everyone!! I'm not sure if anyone even checks my blog anymore, since I haven't posted in MONTHS! I can't believe it.. time certainly flies. I went home for Christmas, and since I don't have access to the internet, I didn't post anything. Once I got back to Hamilton, school started and it was NUTS!!

Being off and working (co-op) for a year was great, but getting back to the school frame of mind was difficult. I've lost my science vocabulary and my organization/study skills. It's been tough. And busy. I guess the final semester was bound to be a bit more intense than all my other semesters... especially since I'm taking 3 problem-based learning courses and 2 other biologies.. I have lots and lots of research and reading to do, ALL THE TIME! That all I did all weekend in fact.

To make matters worse for my first week back, I found out the first Tuesday back that my thesis was due the next Monday... not a week Monday like I had thought. So I finished my thesis in a week instead of the 2 I had planned... needless to say, my supervisor didn't get a chance to go over it and I'm more than a little worried it sucks, big time.

Once that was done, our class lectureship was in full swing. As the graduating class (we're 17 in total), we had to put together a lectureship at the University to generate interest and prestige for our program. It was part of our mark for one of our pharm courses (5% if we came up with a few solid candidates) and although we didn't get that full mark, and most of us (including myself) didn't work all that hard on organizing it, it was a great success! We invited Dr. William Catterall to come give a talk, plus we had a pharm PBL tutorial with him before (and lunch, and a reception, and a tour of the McMaster Museum of Art)... it was great! But it was an extremely busy week / day.

Now for one of my 3 pharm classes this semester, we have 2 components: one is to do a presentation and the other is to promote the program. We got to decide on the marking scheme as a group (Denis, our program coordinator and this tutorial leader didn't help us decide at all) and the presentation will be 70%, the promo 30%. Isn't that crazy?!?? 30% of my mark in this class will depend on how well we promote our program (and set things up for next years class to promote). I think it'll be a lot of fun, and really makes the honours Biology & Pharmacology program a unique and fun program.

Ok, this post turned out to be much, much longer than I planned, and I haven't even begun to update on everything I've been up to!! Ok, that's partly a lie since I haven't been up to much. Just a quick note on Pat, my boyfriend of over 6.5 years ... he was hired on full time after his internship, and has been taking on responsibilities higher than his pay scale! He's actually off to Montreal for the second time in as many weeks, and he'll be doing an accelerated work week: Monday to Thursday (when he comes back) and he gets Friday off. It sucks for me since I've gotten quite used to having him around all the time, but I'm so proud of him. He's doing so well. :)

Anyway, as for Etsy, I'm still running my shop!! I haven't had the time to be very creative, and I really want to be. Since Pat is gone, I'm really going to try and get some business done. And the first thing on the list is to restart the 90 day challenge. I don't remember exactly how many I've posted so far (you can see all the great shops I've already featured in the side bar) but it isn't nearly 90. So I'm going to try my best to post once a day again... although they might not be as in depth as they were before...

Ok, I'm off for now. I'll be posting soon for the 90 day challenge, and maybe update you again soon. There are so many things I've purchased on Etsy that I want to show you!! So much I haven't taken pictures of though... so we'll see.